Builder's Grade Vanity Revamp!

I'm really happy to continue working on the many projects I have around the house. I took a nice break but I'm ready to keep on moving, changing, and updating things.Have you ever felt like that? Only to discover that you don't have that big chunk of money to do everything you want? Well, I think that happens to most of us.I have a very long list of projects to do, but a pretty small budget to bring them to reality.As usual, there are other things more important in life and money has to cover those issues first. Food, health care, housing, etc. That comes first.But anyhow here I am trying to continue updating my home with the little that is left.My project today is a bathroom. Not the master bath, I'm waiting patiently, perhaps one more year to completely renovate that one. No. It's the other bath, the one my kids use. A small bathroom that it's just outdated.So, I am trying to put it up to date with a simple make-over, beginning with the vanity. This is how it looks now:

Ugly when those doors were closed or open. You can still see the mess I tried to blur out. A little shelf didn't help me keep it organized.

Even worse, this was the first thing you got to see when coming from downstairs :(OK OK my plan! Remember the shelves I wanted to sell but I got no buyer?

Not even staging them. They didn't sell!
Good for me, that's the wood I used for this project.
I still have some leftovers!

That was the material to create a shelf on that base cabinet. The dimensions for the cabinet were 42" long x 20" deep. Each of the two shelves I was going to use were 10" wide.First of all, the doors were removed.Second, a coat of primer was applied.

I spray painted the pipes a silver color, something to make them look better ;) Then, the whole cabinet was painted the same color as in my kitchen island (BM Tudor Brown).In order to deal with the plumbing inside the cabinet, one of the shelves was cut, tracing around the pipes like this:

I measured around the pipes, at the exact height I wanted the shelf to be situated. With the measurements at hand I got the Jig Saw to cut around my marks, as you see in picture above. It took me about three or four tries to make it fit snugly.For the shelf that was going to be situated at the front these three simple cuts were done:

These two pieces of board or shelves were going to become only one shelf inside the base cabinet. In order hold them in place, little holes were drilled at the height I wanted my shelf to be located, making sure they were all level. I placed on each of these holes the brackets where the shelves were going rest.

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Here again to show you how the brackets were placed:

A close up at the front shelf cuts, the color of the boards looks extremely reddish in this picture! By the way they are pretty strong oak boards that I just re-stained.

This is the way the vanity looked at the end of the day. Not bad I think, but still missing something.

I got two towel holders and installed them on a piece of mdf (the only piece of that lenght 42" x 4.5" I had at that time). Then I attached it to the cabinets with brad nails.

Knowing that my kids will be fiddling with the bars, I placed little washers on both sides of the board for extra strength.

Little feet gave it the look of furniture. I bought two furniture legs at THD but they were too short! I cut pieces of 2x4 and glued them together to make them the correct size.

The vanity is done :) Next time I will be dealing with something else in this little bath.

Great makeover! Replacing those clear bulbs with white ones will lessen the glare of the Hollywood lights (and spray painting the metal wall plate of the fixture with a hammered finish or other metallic paint) is a quick, cheap way to update that light fixture. Well Done!

I would never have thought of this transformation. I am completely floored. It is a amazing what paint and open shelves with the right accessories can do. Oh and those towel bars? How convenient and lovely! Great job!!

That is an amazing transformation! It brings that vanity up to date - and at such little cost! I love it! I pinned it! :-) I will be eying my guest bathroom vanity now to see if it could be similarly transformed. Great idea! Great job!

This is Fabulous! I was so excited to see you featured on Southern Hospitality! Hope you don't mind copycats, because this is EXACTLY what I wanted to do in our 1/2 bath, but I couldn't figure out how to get a shelf in with that bar down the middle! Use 2 shelves! Ha! You're brilliant! Thanks for solving my dilemma!

That is quite the budget makeover! You really did a great job updating that vanity without spending much money. That's my kind of project ;). I'm a new follower...can't wait to see what else you have up your sleeve.